Social acceleration itself erodes the preconditions for democratic self-steering

Evidence

In the second place, however, the idea of an intentional political interruption (or modification) of the circle of acceleration rests on the notion of a (preferably democratic) political steering of societal development. However, this very possibility is not without temporal presuppositions. On the contrary, a democratic self-steering and self-binding of society, as I will show in chapter 11, is dependent on cultural, structural, and institutional presuppositions that seem to be rapidly eroding in late modernity precisely as a consequence of social acceleration. Therefore it is highly unlikely there can be an effective interruption of the circle of acceleration within the horizon of systemic processes of modernity that are taking on a life of their own (sich verselbständigenden). It would require a mobilization of just those forces and motivations that take the project of modernity to consist above all in the promise of (individual and) political autonomy. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 442

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The core paradox: the very democratic capaciousness needed to interrupt acceleration is what acceleration erodes, so modernity cannot democratically brake its own dynamic.
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source
• XREF: connects to: Social acceleration is a self-reinforcing feedback loop — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 434; Late modern temporal experience yields drift and political fatalism — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 778; Social acceleration erodes the institutions that once stabilized chosen identities. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 32 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Acceleration functions as a strategy immunizing global power from democratic steering #corroborates (0.92) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 597
• Velocity is deliberately weaponized to outpace democratic awareness and freeze resistance #corroborates (0.85) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1092
• Democracies split between imposed dominance and emergent self-determination #corroborates (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race, 709
• Strong affective polarization across groups erodes democratic discourse #complicates (0.72) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 734